Article by
Barbados Today

Published on
June 21, 2016

Fed up with the run around she has been getting from Government, a former Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) nurse says she is heading to Parliament tomorrow in a last-ditch attempt to get members of the Freundel Stuart Government to attend to her plight.

Ex-QEH nurse Coral Wilkinson, who suffered a back injury while on the job in April 1981, told Barbados TODAY this morning she was now at her wits end, and left with no other choice but to try to appeal directly to Stuart and other members of his Cabinet, in the hope that they would listen to her cry for urgent settlement to her more than three-decades-old case for compensation.

Coral Wilkinson is heading to Parliament tomorrow to appeal to the Freundel Stuart Government.

She said despite earlier assurances from both the Prime Minister and Attorney General Adriel Brathwaite her case remains unresolved.

Wilkinson said she had spoken to the Prime Minister back in 2009 as well as on Mother’s Day this year and he had assured her that he would talk to the Attorney General on her behalf that same day (May 8, 2016).

“Since then, I called Mr Brathwaite twice and left messages on the phone but he never returned my call,” a despondent Wilkinson told Barbados TODAY.

She also pointed out that immediately after her story was carried in Barbados TODAY last December, Brathwaite had responded saying that he had given the go ahead for her claim to be settled.

However, with every passing day that her file continues to languish on the desk of Solicitor General Jennifer Edwards, QC, Wilkinson’s pain gets worse and the chances diminish that the surgery which she now desperately needs will bring her the relief that she most longs for.

Wilkinson was walking up the stairs in the antenatal clinic in April 1981 when she fell and damaged her neck. She suffered a slipped disc which still presses against the nerves and the bone in her lower back which supports her upper body weight.The St Thomas resident also said in recent months her physical health had deteriorated so badly that headaches had become a normal part of her existence. Her entire left side is smaller and her right side is getting weaker as she awaits the surgery that will replace the faulty discs in her neck.

“I am so absent-minded that I asked my psychiatrist if I’m going crazy but she said no, it is not dementia, it is just that I am so overworked and at night my mind goes off wandering all over the place,” said Wilkinson, whose illness is taking a serious toll.

“If my comb drops on the floor, I can’t pick it up. I can’t pick it up unless someone comes to pick it up for me. And there are some days I am here alone with the windows closed, because there is nobody to push the windows up. I can get them down, but I can’t get them up,” she said, adding that though her head hurts, there was no sense in taking any medication since relief could only come in the form of surgery.

Efforts today to reach the Solicitor General for comment were unsuccessful.

However, back in February Wilkinson said she had received a letter from Principal Crown Counsel Roger Barker, who was handling the case on behalf of the Solicitor General, offering her $145,159.70 so she could have the cervical surgery done in Britain.

That offer was rejected in a letter dated March 12, 2015 from Wilkinson’s attorney Sir Richard Cheltenham, QC, who argued that “to offer the meagre sum in full satisfaction of her case, is virtually to condemn her to remaining in her presently helpless condition”.

While suggesting the sum of $400,000 instead, Sir Richard advised that the Solicitor General’s offer did not even cover the cost of the medical team in England, whose maximum fee is £33,000, neither did it include the expenses of going to England, which comprised such things as air travel, food, accommodation, internal travel and per diem allowance.

Since then, Sir Richard reported that he had spoken to the Solicitor General back in April and that a settlement should be forthcoming this month.

However, Wilkinson said when she checked with Sir Richard’s secretary last week she was told that all calls to the Solicitor General’s Office had gone unanswered.

Thirty years to get a settlement from your employer! This is totally ridiculous. Six different elections and no one thought about this poor woman’s health and the pain she is in. The settle settlement is way less than the millions that the Auditor Geneneral wants account of; so pay the woman the money so that she can get some relief. Steupse!

Thirty years to get a settlement from your employer! This is totally ridiculous. Six different elections and no one thought about this poor woman’s health and the pain she is in. The settle settlement is way less than the millions that the Auditor Geneneral wants account of; so pay the woman the money so that she can get some relief. Steupse!

Barbados is a banana republic full with educated fools who run things and cares only about themselves and the power they wield.
How can the Government of Barbados drag this matter on for 35 years?
The only conclusion is that they are hoping this woman will expire so that they will not have to pay her any money.
A conversation with the Prime Minister himself and nothing done. Is this man a real Prime Minister or a fake one?
What a shame!!!!!!!!!!!

I agree with you Donald
I endorse your comments
This forum has moderated some of my comments and I am not pleased so I will endorse comments whenever necessary because it seems that there is a gag order on me with respect to commenting on certain issues . In fairness to the moderator my comments sometimes may not appear to be in alignment with the theme or the thread of discussion, at least that is to some people but my comments surpassed the superficial and go to the heart of the problem and the real problems in this society are caused by this Government in Office at the moment-Everything ! Social economic because the Government is not providing the creative imagination necessary nor the leadership that is important for advancement. Every problem in the society can be laid at the feet of the Government. They are charged with the responsibility of running the country that is why we haveMinistries and Agencies -that is why we have – a Ministry of Education; a Minsitry of Health, a Ministry of Religion (Ecclesiastical affairs) ; a Minister of Home affairs ; Transportation; Economic affairs; Social Transformation etc such as Technology. If I say that the Govt is to be blamed for the Guns situation in Barbados , I am not saying the Government bring the Guns or that the Government shoot somebody. I am saying that the Government has the responsiblity to bring ideas and policies to dampen the use of Guns but if people are so bold that everyday you hear about a Gun crime , it means that the Government has failed. Is that too hard for anyone including a moderator to comprehend. –Moderate that !!!

I agree with you Donald
I endorse your comments
This forum has moderated some of my comments and I am not pleased so I will endorse comments whenever necessary because it seems that there is a gag order on me with respect to commenting on certain issues . In fairness to the moderator my comments sometimes may not appear to be in alignment with the theme or the thread of discussion, at least that is to some people but my comments surpassed the superficial and go to the heart of the problem and the real problems in this society are caused by this Government in Office at the moment-Everything ! Social economic because the Government is not providing the creative imagination necessary nor the leadership that is important for advancement. Every problem in the society can be laid at the feet of the Government. They are charged with the responsibility of running the country that is why we haveMinistries and Agencies -that is why we have – a Ministry of Education; a Minsitry of Health, a Ministry of Religion (Ecclesiastical affairs) ; a Minister of Home affairs ; Transportation; Economic affairs; Social Transformation etc such as Technology. If I say that the Govt is to be blamed for the Guns situation in Barbados , I am not saying the Government bring the Guns or that the Government shoot somebody. I am saying that the Government has the responsiblity to bring ideas and policies to dampen the use of Guns but if people are so bold that everyday you hear about a Gun crime , it means that the Government has failed. Is that too hard for anyone including a moderator to comprehend. –Moderate that !!!

Errol Barrow; Tom Adams , Owen Arthur – they would have solved this problem ever since. I listen to how Muhammad Nassar
talks about Errol Barrow taking him up in his car and taking him to Grazettes and identifying a spot for him to start his business. That is the kind of Prime Minister that we are accustomed to in this small space called Barbados. The Prime Minister usually has his hands in everything and knows everything about matters –AND THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH THAT –in my humble opinion (IMHO)

Errol Barrow; Tom Adams , Owen Arthur – they would have solved this problem ever since. I listen to how Muhammad Nassar
talks about Errol Barrow taking him up in his car and taking him to Grazettes and identifying a spot for him to start his business. That is the kind of Prime Minister that we are accustomed to in this small space called Barbados. The Prime Minister usually has his hands in everything and knows everything about matters –AND THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH THAT –in my humble opinion (IMHO)

You are correct Dave, PM is a dunce plain and simple, the faster he gets voted out the better.
He aint know murder victims been getting bail for years now due to a slow judicial process,,what a buffoon?